Man's body pulled from sea after fall from cliffs at Birsay in Orkney

A man’s body has been pulled from the sea after a reports someone had falled from sheer cliffs on Orkney sparked a large emergency response.

Just after 11pm on Sunday, volunteers from RNLI Stromness Lifeboat were paged to help find a missing person in the Marwick Head and Brough of Birsay area of the island.

Coastguard shore teams, a helicopter and police searched the area around and below the cliffs at Birsay.

At around 1.50am, a man’s body was recovered from the water near Northside Road.

Police said the man had not yet been formally identified but his death is not being treated as suspicious.

RNLI Stromness Lifeboat said its boat crewed by two volunteers set off within 12 minutes of being paged.

Joined by the Coastguard, they searched the water, the shore, cliffs and the cliff tops late into the night before the man’s body was found and the lifeboat was stood down.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “We can confirm that the body of a man was recovered from water near to Northside Road, Birsay, Orkney, at around 1.50am on Monday, June 13, 2022.

“Formal identification is yet to take place. The death is not being treated as suspicious.”

In September last year, Orkney’s emergency services pleaded for safety around the cliffs following a collapse at Birsay.